All QB’s are “Game Managers”: Slight SUTTON Rant

Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

I mean, let’s be honest, isn’t this who you think of when you hear “game manager”?

Trent F’in Dilfer. The prototype of the game manager, the helpless fart flapping in the wind of an NFL maelstrom of defense. Just don’t turn the ball over! Gosh, just hand the ball off! Let’s use “The Waterboy” technique and just kneel it. Leave it to anyone else - the defense, the run game - just not the QB. And, oh yes, Gatorade does indeed suck, Bobby Boucher.

OK, quick question for anybody lucid enough in their college classes to actually remember something in between bong rips and keg stands: remember anything about necessary and sufficient conditions? Being a male sibling is a necessary and sufficient condition for being a brother; being a game manager is a necessary and sufficient condition for being a quarterback in the NFL.

See, calling a QB a game manager isn’t really saying anything. You’re on a Dolphins blog! Well, you already knew that. Is it that shocking that all QB’s manage games? It’s part of their job; it’s part of why they’re revered, because they are involved in almost every offensive snap, Wildcat notwithstanding, and process more details than anybody except the coaches (play clock, OL protection shifts, audibles, hot routes, etc..).

Plus, Trent Dilfer won a Super Bowl. “Game managers” can win Super Bowls. So what are we really saying?

If you lump W/L records as a QB stat (which I’m not saying is right), then you have no authority to denigrate a QB with the nomenclature “game manager” - “managing the game” is the very premise of prescribing wins and losses on QB’s because it inherently acknowledges the role QB’s have during the course of the game and how much they are responsible for.

So if you want to poop on Case Keenum or Joe Flacco or Alex Smith or, say, Ryan Tannehill, refrain from using “game manager” as a denigration. Believe it or not, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, and Tom Brady manage games, too. They do remarkable things while in pursuit of managing the game, but they’re managing the game nonetheless, it’s their first and foremost job - they’re the coach on the field.

Please, show some creativity and some detail if you wish to differentiate QB’s and/or ascertain blame and/or glory. I don’t see how being a “game manager” is a zinger. It’s the foundation of playing the position. I played collegiate basketball, and it wouldn’t be an insult to say the point guard was responsible for knowing time/score/quarter situations - even though all of us were supposed to know it, it fell on the PG for he communicated everything.

“Game managing” doesn’t mean you suck at throwing in or out routes, or post routes, or recognizing defenses pre-snap. If you feel a certain QB sucks in this area, present an argument. C’mon ladies and gentleman, we are damn near in an Enlightenment with all the technology and information at our disposal - don’t waste another second calling Trent Dilfer a “game manager”. Just tell me why he sucked.

I’ve seen the Twitter-verse while everything is imploding; I’ve seen the end of espn.com articles and the comments thereof. I know the hate is there. Just do me a favor and say something more substantial than stating the obvious. QB’s manage games like you breathe oxygen. And?

Rant over.